Christie camp highlights Corzine’s QPAC negatives

Chris Christie’s campaign says the key numbers in a new Quinnipiac poll are Gov. Jon Corzine’s upside-down approval ratings, upside-down favorables, and his failure to break 40% as an incumbent who has spent millions of dollars on his campaign so far – not the six point narrowing of Christie’s lead.

“Jon Corzine has spent millions of dollars on negative, nasty attack ads, yet 61% of New Jerseyans still believe Jon Corzine will raise their property taxes,” said Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien in a statement, referring to the percentage of likely voters who expect their property taxes to go up under Corzine (34% expected them to rise under Christie, versus 46% who expect them to stay the same.

“Jon Corzine continues to reach into his deep pockets to scare voters and distract from his failed record, but over half of New Jerseyans don’t approve of his job as governor and believe his policies have driven the state’s economy into the ground. Jon Corzine can spend as much of his Wall Street millions as he wants on negative attack ads, but Chris is the only candidate with an independent approach to bring real change to struggling New Jersey families.”

Those negative ads have driven down Christie’s favorability ratings, according to the poll. Voters are split down the middle on how they view Christie, with his favorable/unfavorable rating tied at 38% to 38%. That’s down from 41% favorable to 30% unfavorable in Quinnipiac’s September 1 survey. For Corzine, those numbers are upside down, as they have been for some time, at 56% unfavorable to 34% unfavorable.